Ace broadcaster, Oheneyere Gifty Anti, has shared how her dream of becoming a Public Relations expert turned into journalism, growing up.
Host of The Standpoint Show says her dream was to venture into PR but her environment influenced her into becoming a journalist following the qualities they saw her possessed.
Despite being advised by two separate panels after her interview into admission at the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) to switch to journalism, Madam Anti says she insisted on pursuing PR till she completed to undertake her six months compulsory internship.
Whilst working at the Ghana Revenue Authority, the broadcaster says she was advised to leave and pursue journalism just one month into her internship at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
She says she headed for the Ghana News Agency before joining the New Times Corporation, producers of the Ghanaian Times Newspaper.
Speaking at a Thought Leadership programme organised by Onua FM Wednesday, June 12, 2024, on the theme: Women in Politics and their Impact on Governance, Gifty Anti said she got convinced and stuck with the profession when her story appeared on the front page of the Ghanaian Times.
She disclosed that her father, who felt proud over her achievement carried the paper to every household in their vicinity at the time, to show them what his daughter had achieved.
Oheneyere says the circumstances surrounding her story makes her see journalism as a profession that fell in love with her which she reciprocated.
“I always say that journalism fell in love with me and I reciprocated. Some of the things I talk about now is how your environment holistically influences you and not just the people. When I went to GIJ (Ghana Institute of Journalism), I didn’t want the journalism but both panel on the two interviews I attended suggested journalism for me.
“At the time, we did six months internship for GIJ and I went to then Internal Revenue (Ghana Revenue Service) and Prof. Mills was then the head so I was in his PR department. So Commander Dadzie, after serving just one out of the six months, told me to go and try media house and return if I didn’t like it. I thought the man hated me so I first went to GNA. I used to follow the seniors there to Parliament and they were making me write stories too.
“I then went to Ghanaian Times and it was there that I met a woman called Hayfron Asare. She showed me pepper! I wept everyday and she would buy me lunch after that. At the time I thought she was my enemy until she asked me to go to Circle to look for a story one day. When I returned she helped me write the story and it was captured on Ghanaian Times’ front page and my father took the newspaper and showed it to everyone in Tema,” she narrated in Twi to the moderator, Nana Yaa Brefo Danso.
She lauded a co-panelist at the forum, Dzifa Gomashie, Member of Parliament for Ketu South, for sticking to her through the times to correct her from the time and even till date.
Former General Secretary of the CPP, Nana Yaa Jantuah, was also a panel at the event.
‘My father told me I will die a pauper if I pursued journalism’ – Nana Yaa Jantuah
